Episode 240: Bush Bachelor

Our second consecutive all-request episode kicks off in the Gaming Hut, as Ray Slakinksi asks for tips on running Night’s Black Agents at conventions.

In the History Hut Andy Young wants to know about the Mythos truth behind the death of legendary Canadian painter Tom Thomson.

Rick Neal uses the kind offices of Ask Ken and Robin to find out about geek-friendly destinations in Toronto and Chicago.

Then get ready to grab your picket signs as our Tell Me More segment enlists the Consulting Occultist for a look at the secret occult history of the epic battle between urban planner Robert Moses and the writer Jane Jacobs over the fate of Greenwich Village.

Like Ken and Robin themselves, The White Box, from Atlas Games and Gameplaywright, is all about making games. Professor of the gaming arts Jeremy Holcomb gives you all the deep knowledge, wooden bits, plastic discs, and punchboard tokens you need to take the game that’s in your head and make it a reality. Make it all the more awesome by supporting the White Box Kickstarter.

Want to plunge headlong into Lovecraftian mystery, but lack a gaming group? Want to introduce a friend or loved one to the roleplaying hobby? GUMSHOE One-2-One has come to your rescue! Find this new system by some guy named Robin D. Laws, in the line’s flagship title, Cthulhu Confidential. Now pre-ordering at the Pelgrane Press store. Do intervals between episodes plunge you into Hite withdrawal? Never fear! his brilliant pieces on parasitic gaming, alternate Newtons, Dacian werewolves and more now lurk among the sparkling bounty of The Best of FENIX Volumes 1-3, from returning sponsors Askfageln. Yes, it’s Sweden’s favorite RPG magazine, now beautifully collected. Warning: not in Swedish. John Scott Tynes’ Puppetland is ready to knock the stuffing out of a game store near you in its gorgeous new full-color hardcover edition. Join the good folks at Arc Dream in battling the horrific forces of Punch the Maker-Killer!

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3 Responses to “Episode 240: Bush Bachelor”

This is probably a good space to inform others of the gamer-related attractions in our cities.
Cincinnati, OH has the Rook, a gamer cafe with an impressive library of titles, taking up an entire wall. The bar and the building are both restored antiques. The city itself is an old one by Midwestern standards, with a large inventory of Art Deco, Germanic Revival, and Neoclassical buildings. Gameable aspects of Cincinnati’s history include the Underground Railroad, Prohibition, and plenty of subterranean spaces.

One other bit of advice I’d add concerning demo games at conventions: Do not play to your chosen game’s weaknesses.

It should be obvious, but it’s amazingly easy to slip, and I’ve seen some very bad instances. The odds are that whatever game you’ve chosen, it has at least one significant perceived option. If you don’t know what it is, there’ll be open online discussions where it’s described in great detail. This image problem is probably grossly unfair, and if you like the game enough to demo it, those discussions will probably annoy you terribly, but the fact remains that they’re a decent guide to where the system or setting isn’t at its best, or where it’s easy to get wrong.

So whatever you do, don’t confirm people’s prejudices. If the system is notorious for slowing down with all sorts of fiddly dice modifiers in combat, then avoid that sort of combat, pre-calculate the modifiers, or be ready to fudge it. If the setting includes some gross badass NPCs and people joke about PCs standing around looking awestruck while those NPCs have all the fun, then don’t have any scenes where badass NPCs are scheduled to save the day. If it’s a horror game that’s notorious for futile PC fatalities, try to make sure that any PC deaths are at least heroic or highly atmospheric. And so on.